San Marcos Ca Flowers

If you're going to keep bees you will need to house your bees in a hive, but what type of hive? Where are you going to put it and what other factors do you need to know?

Beekeeping hives are available in a number of different designs. The most popular design in the USA is the Langstroth hive. This is what is known as a movable frame hive. It was the first style of hive designed so that it is possible to harvest the honey without destroying the colony or the honeycomb.

Widely used by both commercial and hobby beekeepers the body of the Langstroth hive is a simple wooden rectangle which usually holds 10 frames. The frames support plastic or beeswax foundation, a thin sheet which has a honeycomb patterned embossed on both sides. The bees build out the honeycomb following the foundation pattern.

Surprisingly there is no top or bottom on the hive body. The frames simply hang suspended from the body. While the body is designed to hold 10 frames some beekeepers prefer to use only 9 evenly spaced frames per body. This means that the bees build out the honeycomb to extend past the wooden frame and makes uncapping the frames to extract honey easier.

Another type of hive that is becoming increasing popular is the top bar hive. This type of hive is a much simpler design and is much cheap to purchase. It has a number of advantages over the Langstroth hive for hobbyists, anyone for whom the weight of a Langstroth hive is a problem and the disabled.

The top bar hive stands on legs so that there is no bending to tend the bees. It is also easy to lower the height for anyone in a wheelchair. Foundation is not used, the bees build natural (freestyle) honeycomb which they attach to the top bars that the hive is named after.

The honey is harvested by taking out individual combs so there's no heavy lifting. There are a couple of disadvantages with this style of hive. They honeycomb is harvested with the honey, so the bees need to rebuild the comb each time and rebuilding the comb slows down honey production.

Whatever style of hive suits you best, you will need to think carefully about locating your hive. Ideally it should be near sources of pollen and nectar. Bees also need a fresh water source. If you are not lucky enough to have a natural water supply for your bees you will need to supply a bee friendly source.

Bees are very good for the environment as they pollinate a lot of natural vegetation as well as our crops and ornamental flowers. Some farmers are more than happy to allow beekeepers to place a hive on their farm so that the bees can help with pollination.

Your hive will need protection from predators of varying kinds. I's not just animals who like to help themselves to free honey so hive should positioned so that they are not too obvious to the casual observer.

For more information about as well as tips and articles to help you get started keeping bees, visit and get the FREE 10 part Mini Course.